This invention relates to techniques for remotely reconfiguring telephone sets. More particularly, this invention relates to remote reconfiguration methods for feature-function telephone sets.
Telephone companies are continually introducing special services as well as upgrading existing services provided over the telephone. For example, some telephone companies offer services that enable the subscriber of the service to determine the telephone number of the person calling. By using feature-function telephones provided by telephone companies, users are able to access various special services (e.g., caller identification, voice mail, mail box, etc.).
Generally, a feature-function telephone comprises function-keys in addition to keys generally present on the keypad, i.e., 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,*, and #. Alternatively, a predetermined combination of keys on the keypad can be used to represent a function-key that is used to access a special service. This predetermined combination is established by telephone companies and may vary from company to company.
Typically, users need to buy or rent feature-function telephone sets or attachments to be coupled to existing telephones from their respective telephone companies in order to access special services. These feature-function telephone sets include special function programs that correspond to special services a user wishes to access. For example, a user subscribing to the caller identification feature offered by a telephone company needs to buy or rent a feature-function telephone or a separate unit which is to be connected to an existing telephone, which enables the user to use the caller identification service offered.
With a continual increase and change in special services provided by telephone companies, the user needs to buy or rent different feature-function telephones or telephone attachments to be able to use new services. Moreover, because services vary from one telephone company to another, there is an additional need to buy or rent new feature-function telephones every time a user moves to a location with a different service provider that does not recognize the special function programs provided by the user's previous provider.
Subsequently, telephone companies need to order different feature-function telephones or different attachments for existing telephones for users subscribing to different services. In turn, telephone manufacturers need to manufacture different feature-function telephones for various telephone companies.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a feature-function telephone capable of being remotely reconfigured, thereby allowing a user access to new or changed services without having to buy or rent different feature-function telephones or telephone attachments.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a feature-function telephone capable of requesting and receiving special function programs from a telephone company, thereby allowing said feature-function telephone to access various special services.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a remote reconfiguration method for feature-function telephones that allows a user access to new or changed services without having to buy or rent different feature-function telephones or telephone attachments.